Project Dependencies

I’m not 100% sure if this is a feature already included in OmniFocus 2 for iOS or not, but I’d be interested in making projects and/or tasks dependent upon the completion of other projects/tasks. I’ve had a few items today that would be nice to have “pop” in a specific order, that way I’m only focusing on the current task/project not a list of things that are dependent upon the original task/project.

Is that a feature I’m just missing? I saw a post from 2015, and am surprised no one has asked about it again since then. If it’s not currently a feature, is it on the Feature Request list?

Thanks!

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What you’re describing is roughly what Sequential Projects achieve. From the OmniFocus Help Documentation:

Sequential projects have actions that need to be completed in a predetermined order; the first item needs to be completed before you can move on to the next. Another example of a sequential project could be a checklist that an astronaut goes through during the launch sequence. Each item in the list is dependent on the previous item’s completion.

Projects and Action Groups (Actions/tasks with children tasks) can both be setup as Sequential rather than Parallel, which means some portions of Projects can be Sequential while others are Parallel, all while the Project itself can be either. This can result in some sophisticated configurations within a project.

What OmniFocus can’t do is create a Sequential set of actions across multiple Projects or Action Groups (making Task A in Project 1 dependent on Task B in Project 2, for example), they must be nested together in a single Project or Action Group. It sounds to me like this is what you’re trying to achieve?

What I sometimes do in those instances is create a “meta-task” in the other project that says “Complete Task A” and set its Context as “Waiting For…”. So when I complete Task A in Project 2, I’ll also make the meta-task in Project 1 complete. If Project 1 were Sequential, then the next task would be marked as Available. It’s not automatic, but at least my frequent review of the “Waiting For…” Context would trigger these next steps.

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@amarand I currently use one-off OmniPlanner projects for that, no functionality like that in OF 😔

What’s the Project Management philosophy that justifies excluding nested task dependencies across multiple projects in the software?

If my primary project is “Live a Productive Life” and that’s where I put anything without a determined ROI or end game, every other project is more than likely a subflow of that one.